Neighbourhood level and individual level SES effects on child problem behaviour: a multilevel analysis

Objective-This study explained whether neighbourhood level socioeconomic va riables have are independent effect on reported child behaviour problems ov er and above the effect of individual level measures of socioeconomic statu s. Design and setting-Multilevel analysis of cross sectional survey data relat ing individual level child behavioural problems and parental measures of so cioeconomic status with neighbourhood level measures of socioeconomic depri vation in the city of Maastricht, the Netherlands. Participants-Children born in the years 1990-1991 attending the second grad e of normal kindergarten schools in the city of Maastricht, the Netherlands . Out of 1417 eligible 5-7 year olds, the parents of 734 children (51.8%) a greed to participate. Main results-Child behaviour problems were more frequent in families of low parental occupation and education (F=14.51, df 3, 721, p<0.001; F=12.20, d f 3, 721, p<0.001, respectively) and in families living in deprived neighbo urhoods (F=13.26, df 2, 722, p<0.001). Multilevel random effects regression analysis showed that the effect of neighbourhood level deprivation remaine d after adjustment for individual level socioeconomic status (B over three levels of deprivation: 1.36; 95%CI=0.28, 2.45). Conclusions-Living in a more deprived neighbourhood is associated with high er levels of child problem behaviour, irrespective of individual level soci oeconomic status. The additional effect of the neighbourhood may be attribu table to contextual variables such as the level of social cohesion among re sidents.